My Biggest Mistakes From 2023

While everyone is sharing their 2023 highlights...

Me included.

Here's some of my biggest mistakes from the year and the lessons I took from them so you can hopefully avoid the same pitfalls.

1. Created Too Many Freaking Offers

A 2023 highlight for me was launching my six-month Impact Accelerator. It's the main way that I help coaches + purpose-driven consultants grow their business + impact. There's 36 lessons in the program, the group calls often have laughter + a dose of magic, and the community aspect of the Accelerator is incredible.

But not everyone is ready for a six-month program.

So throughout the year, I experimented with several smaller offers that help people dial in their message and make Content That Creates Clients. These smaller programs solve a real problem people have and make for a stellar on-ramp into The Impact Accelerator. But I got carried away. I fell for the enticing shine of new things and created way too many offers.

It's a distraction and confuses people.

Going forward? Other than the select few 1:1 clients I partner with, the only ways I'll be working with people directly is Content That Creates Clients + The Impact Accelerator. My focus will be on tweaking, improving, and delivering those at the highest levels.

2. Didn't Schedule Downtime After Launch

Launches are awesome. They build momentum, grab attention, and can create infusions of clients into your business. They do this by focusing you + your energy.

You get loads done in a short period of time.

Important things that you've been dragging your ass on get miraculously taken care of when there's a forcing function like a launch deadline. But it's a push. And after the sprint, you need to refuel.

You're not a robot.

I forgot this in the fall after a particularly big launch and have been struggling with lower levels of energy since. I won't make this mistake again. Any future launch planning will include scheduling a vacation at the end.

It doesn't have to be long.

Depending on the size of the launch, an unplugged three-day weekend in nature can do the trick.

3. Got Addicted to Coffee

In 2021, the amount of coffee I drank could be counted on my fingers. I ended the 2021 at six coffees for the entire year.

I love coffee.

The taste, the boost of energy it gives, and when I'm not having it frequently, it also flushes me with feelings of immense gratitude. But it's addictive. It also greatly affects the quality of my sleep.

Even if I only have it early in the day.

And when I start getting less deep sleep, my energy dips and I find it harder to focus. The solution for that? More coffee.

It crept up on me incrementally.

Just one coffee a month turned into a few. Then my weekly coffee became "only a couple times a week". Before I knew it I was saying "I'll only drink coffee on weekdays".

On it went until not having a coffee became the odd exception.

All while fully knowing that it was messing with my sleep, stealing my energy instead of giving it, and making me grumpy when I didn't have it. In my opinion, it's best used as a special tool, not a daily crutch. I've only had one coffee in the last seven days.

5. Didn't Put Out Enough Content

With every passing month, more people are starting to share their ideas online.

The explosion of incredible AI tools has made it easy for anyone to start putting out content. And as more people publish on any platform, the quality of the ideas, writing, hooks, and imagery you need for your message to break through on that channel increases. It's only going to get harder to stand out from here.

But I still feel we're all sitting on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I'm confident that in the future people are going to look back in awe at how easy we currently have it. Why am I so sure? I remember when it was much harder (and more expensive) to get your message out.

It was a slog.

With my first business in the 90s, I had to print flyers, buy magazine ads, send faxes overseas, and deal with the face-to-face rejection of negotiating with store owners to stock my product. Knowing the opportunity fades more each month, I challenged myself in September.

The goal?

Start posting daily on LinkedIn. I shared the intention publicly and failed miserably. Within a week, I'd missed a day and was back to my routine of publishing 4 ish times a week shortly after.

But I knew what stating the goal publicly would do.

It would push me to finally get my shit together when it comes to creating a system that allows me to easily put content out in way more volume. And that's exactly what I've been working on with my team for the last few months. We've been building a system that's allowing me to not just batch more content, but create loads of stuff I'm proud of, and easily re-purpose/remix the stuff that is working.

I'm currently sitting on over a hundred posts ready to unleash starting next week.

Once the system is fine-tuned, I'll be documenting the process and teaching it to my clients so they can easily turn up the dial on getting their message out to help more people without it being a drain on them.

BTW - Want to start your year with intention, focus, and more clients? Content That Creates Clients kicks off in January.